Car Bomb

Car bombs, which wreak harrowing damage for little cost, have become a game-changer in contemporary times according to this sadly convincing documentary, which also concludes that no sure defense exists against them. Based on the book Buda's Wagon by Mike Davis, Car Bomb finds veteran CIA agent Robert Baer (the inspiration for George Clooney's character in Syriana) tracing the “vehicle-borne improvised explosive device” back to a 1920 detonation of a horse-drawn wagon in Wall Street, which was possibly the work of an Italian anarchist demanding freedom for Sacco and Vanzetti. This type of weapon was further deployed by Zionists in Palestine, Palestinians in Israel, Mafiosi in Sicily, the Irish Republican Army in Belfast, and Timothy McVeigh in Oklahoma City. News footage illustrates the devastation, while chilling interviews with actual bombers show only two (a Lebanese Christian and an IRA man) expressing anything close to remorse. Baer himself confronted carnage during the suicide bombings in 1983 of the U.S. embassy and Marine barracks in Beirut (judged “one of the largest non-nuclear explosions ever”). Despite President Reagan's defiance at the time, the U.S. cut and ran from the Lebanese civil war afterward. Some viewers may take issue with the film's assertion that America has already lost Iraq, while others may be uncomfortable with the bomb-making details divulged (although explosive recipes and tips were widely accessible even before the Internet). Disturbing, riveting, and all too timely, this is highly recommended. Aud: C, P. (C. Cassady)